2015-01-21
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Family members of victims killed in the New Year’s Eve stampede mourn their deaths on the Bund in Shanghai, Jan. 6, 2015.
ImagineChina
An official inquiry in Shanghai on Wednesday recommended the sacking of four district-level officials in connection with a fatal New Year’s Eve crush and trampling incident that left 36 people dead and dozens injured, three of whom remain in hospital.
A total of 49 people were injured in the disaster, which occurred shortly before midnight on Dec. 31 as crowds gathered on Shanghai’s iconic riverfront to welcome in the New Year, prompting the investigation, along with a nationwide review of safety standards.
An 18-year-old university student remains in intensive care in critical condition at the Shanghai No. 1 People’s Hospital, while two others are still “in recovery” from their injuries, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted hospital sources as saying.
The municipal government report recommended that Zhou Wei, Communist Party secretary of Shanghai’s Huangpu district, Huangpu district government chief Peng Song, Peng’s deputy Zhou Zheng and district police chief Chen Qi be dismissed.
The report, which said that its minute-by-minute analysis of the tragedy was based on witness testimony, expert opinion and more than 40 hours of video footage, concluded that the four had “failed” in their assessment of risk, communication with the public, preparation for the event and monitoring.
It said the deaths and injuries had been clustered near a stairway leading to a viewing platform near the intersection with the Nanjing Road shopping district, and that crowds had ignored police directions to use the steps only for going down.
Chen Yi Square
The inquiry found that just seven police officers were present in Chen Yi Square.
“At 10:37 p.m., after the one-way pedestrian traffic zone set aside by police at the…southeast corner of Chen Yi Square was breached, police on duty tried to maintain order, but a large number of people continued to walk in the wrong direction up onto the viewing platform,” the report said.
“Between 11:23 p.m. and 11:33 p.m., the two-way flow of people going up and down the ladder to the viewing platform led to their obstructing each other, forming a stalemate, until the pressure of people wishing to descend increased sharply, causing some people near the foot of the ladder to lose their balance and fall to the floor,” the report said.
“Their falls caused more people to fall and to be crushed, giving rise to the crush and the stampede incident,” it said.
“Police on duty at the scene tried to maintain order and to pull out the people who had been trampled, but they were still being crushed and trampled by people coming down,” the report said. “They tried many times to do this but were unsuccessful.”
“After this, a group of citizens near the ladder joined hands, and the crowds at the top of the ladder began to retreat, under their direction, and that of the police,” it said.
